Yes, I carry a spare mask, in my right BC pocket. Already needed it on one dive, and glad it was there; what would have been a dive-ender (at the very beginning of a drift reef) instead became just a minor hassle as I switched masks.
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Have you ever tried to ascend at 30 feet per minute without really seeing anything?
You should.
Let your mask fill with water, then try to read your computer.
I had a mask failure on my fifth dive at around 30 feet, and the resulting ~blind ascent wasn't precisely pretty. I was inexperienced and I lost depth display. At times I went too fast up, at times I went down. After some bouncing I reached the surface, but as my ears didn't clear as fast as I was bouncing, some ear pain resulted. It lasted an hour or two. After that incident I have always carried a spare mask.
ps. The mask failure that I experienced was my own fault. I tightened it too much so it started to leak. Then I asked my dive buddy (with some hand signals) to tighten my mask even more (wrong choice), which he misunderstood and loosened it. Too much. As a result I was left with a flooded mask.
I have seen a few people lately discuss having a spare mask in a pocket while diving. Is this the status quo to dive with an extra mask or is this considered overkill to most? And I am not talking about having an extra mask in your gear bag topside.
In non deco, non overhead, direct ascent open water diving - no.
Extended mandatory deco or overhead environment, absolutely!
.. Well if I'm on a vacation dive that cost 50-100 bucks and I ended the dive because of a mask failure, it would have been cheaper, easier, and quicker to just carry a cheap spare mask in the first place, so it's somewhat cost efficient and convenient... so again, why not?